What is the "Wine of the wrath" of Babylon's false teachings?

Posted Feb 08, 2023 in Explaining the Violent Stories of the Bible

"For the superpowers in a hungry world to spend over a million dollars a minute for armaments, is crazy. Surely a visitor from another planet would think we are mad. Christ came to the world as the "Prince of peace." What creates war is not the acceptance of His message, but its rejection. And to ensure its rejection, Satan invented the confusion of Babylon. Lenin was mistaken because he did not understand the Book of Revelation: true Christianity is not the "opiate" of the people. The difficulty is caused by its clever perversion perpetrated by "Great Babylon".

What is the "Wine of the wrath" of Babylon's false teachings? This teaching is indirectly responsible for the increase of crime and violence in the world today:

1) Religious teachers proclaim that the law of God is either no longer binding upon men, or that it cannot be obeyed. This naturally leads to lawlessness.

2) A man-made sabbath imported from sun-worship is exalted in place of the seventh-day Sabbath of the Lord. This also casts contempt on the law of God.

3) With the neglect of the Sabbath, the Bible doctrine of creation is also denied by most modern churches. No longer is it believed that man was created "in the image of God" as Genesis tells us. What follows naturally is the jungle rule of "survival of the fittest," or dog-eat-dog.

4) Whereas the Bible clearly teaches that baptism is a symbol of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ repeated in the experience of the believer, many churches teach that sprinkling or pouring a little water on the head of an infant is sufficient. Meaningful commitment to Christ is thus undermined. This mistaken understanding of baptism hides the truth that self must be crucified and buried with Christ, and the soul rise to a radical newness of life in Christ.

5) Seldom does one hear Christ-centered, Bible-centered sermons in the many churches today. It is no longer common practice for the professed followers of Jesus to "search the scriptures." The prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation are particularly neglected. The only truth that can effectively conquer sensuality and materialism is silenced.

6) The precious doctrine of the sanctuary in heaven where Christ is now ministering as our High Priest in His closing work of atonement is wholly lost sight of in the churches of Babylon. The result is that they have no knowledge of the special work that Christ is doing today. Thus they are unprepared to follow Him by faith in His work of making a people ready for His second coming.

7) Whereas the apostles taught the followers of Christ not to "love the world, or the things in the world," pride, luxury, and display are as common in the professed churches of Christ as in the ungodly world itself. "Know this, that in the last days . . . men will be lovers of themselves, . . . lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power" (2 Timothy 3:1-5).

8) Scripture teaches us, "Whether you eat, or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Corinthians 10:31). Yet the churches of Babylon have almost entirely ceased from giving any instruction in harmony with Scripture about healthful living or control of appetite. No distinction is made between the "clean" and "unclean" foods (see Leviticus 11), nor is there generally any teaching given concerning the moral and physical evils of the use of tobacco, intoxicating drinks or other harmful things.

9) The doctrine that the lost are forced to endure eternal consciousness in the fires of hell has driven many thoughtful people to hate God for such terrible and unjust cruelty. Many professed Christians who still attend church doubt much of the Bible because they cannot bring themselves to believe a doctrine that is so obviously cruel and untrue. This error rests on still another one:

10) The first lie Satan ever told in the garden of Eden was, "You will not surely die" (Genesis 3:4). The ancient heathen religions without exception incorporated that lie and taught that the dead are still alive. This false doctrine was passed on to the popular churches of today. If the dead are still alive, is it not the next logical step for them to come and visit with us and talk with us? This is Spiritualism itself and is one of the most dangerous false doctrines of Babylon, and will eventually make the nations "drunk." Evil angels who fell from heaven with Satan pretend to be the spirits of the dead. In this way they can gain complete control over the minds of those who do not know the truth.

Unscriptural ideas about Israel also make the nations "drunk." The Middle East is the sizzling fuse of the powder keg of world war. False ideas of prophecy about Israel add to this confusion."

- Gospel in Revelation by Robert Wieland, p 307-311